Our racial perceptions are not quite right

There are only a couple things I remember vividly from high school — the teachers who… There are only a couple things I remember vividly from high school — the teachers who loved me, the teachers who hated me, and the teachers I hated. But the one thing that sticks out more than anything is my social experience.

It was somewhat twisted.

Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe twisted is the way it is with everyone that grew up like me, making it a normal experience. As a black female, my upbringing has undoubtedly beendifferent from that of most African Americans. Living in a predominantly white neighborhood and going to a high school where approximately 50 percent of the students were Jewish changed the way I thought, talked, and performed — both socially and academically. On one particular day, I was sitting in the stairwell with a couple of white friends during our lunch break. A black student walking down the stairwell approached me and asked, “Why do you hang out with them? Don’t you know what they did to us?”

At first, I was bewildered, then appalled. “Are you seriously talking about slavery? That was, like, how many hundreds of years ago!?”

Though I can’t say that this was my first wake-up call to the unresolved problems in our society, it was definitely a reminder that some things never change — that some eyes are never opened and others’ ears still remain shut. Countless times, I’ve had people approach me and say, “You didn’t sound black over the phone!” or “You speak so well!” when, in reality, my speech is just as normal as any well-read person’s would be. What I can’t understand is why it’s so hard to realize that we’re all human.

Yeah, we all look different, but that’s it. We are all made sick by the same germs. We all fail our Stars, Galaxies and the Cosmos exams because the class is too easy to study for, and we all agree that tuition is unnecessarily high. So if it’s such a simple concept, why is it so hard to grasp?

A couple weeks ago, several columnists wrote pieces expressing their disappointment in the Pitt community — a community that boasts about its racial integration, when, in reality, there’s not much to brag about. While there are always exceptions, most of us tend to keep towhere it’s comfortable … a little too comfortable.

I’m not saying that we should forget where we came from or completely dissociate ourselves from those we call our friends. I am saying that we need to be honest with ourselves and find out why we hang with the people that we do.

If and when you finally do examine your culture intake, and you find that all of your friends don’t exactly look like you, that’s actually a good thing. Fear not. Not everyone’s lips are as thin as yours; and you may even get a chance to know someone that has visibly ashy skin. You’ll also learn that you can glue hair on just like fake nails. If you can’t comprehend this, get a black friend.

I don’t mean to sound so giddy, but diversity is so much fun. And contrary to what your grandparents told you, it is OK to fall in love with a person who’s not the same color as you. I promise!

So, in the words of a great philosopher — me — “Dip into the chocolate. Whether black or white, it tastes just as good!”

If you like chocolate just as much as Joy does, email her at JoySep21@yahoo.com